Nesarian Language
Nesarian Language Nesarian is an Elvic language spoken in Nesaria, and it used as a lingua franca for the other countries within the Empire (teaching at least basic Nesarian as a second language is mandatory throughout the Empire). Although grammar is rigid, the structure of the words is often contradictory and follows few rules given that Nesarian is the combination of the Elvic Eshérian language and the native Nesarian language of Ascaria and Wallshire (known as Wallian, or Cafanae in Nesarian). Some words are directly taken from the native form, such as "Marn" (meaning "Start"), some are "Elvicised" versions of native words such as "Szimas" (meaning "Beast"), and some - predominantly relating to concepts or things that did not exist in pre-Elvic Nesaria - are of entirely Elvic origin, such as "Regatinos" (meaning "Empire"). The Nesarian language in its current form, known as Modern Nesarian, was formally adopted in the early 18th century with the publishing of the Modern Nesarian Dictionary in 1809, however this form of the language is estimated to have been spoken since at least 1700. Grammar has remained relatively unchanged since the language was first adopted by the Nesarians thousands of years ago, but many words have dramatically shortened and had their pronunciation altered since then. Nesarian grammar is essentially identical to English grammar, making it a fairly popular second language in the Anglophone world. English is also a common second or third language within the Nesarian Empire. Due to the historical influence of the Nesarian Empire, Nesarian is also commonly learned as a second or third language in the ex-Empire states as well as Greece and Russia. Written form The Nesarian language was historically written with Elvic runes, which were notorious even amongst native writers for being exceedingly complex and convoluted, with strange rules and a self-contradictory structure. Sometimes Elvic runes represented whole concepts or sentences, sometimes syllables, and sometimes individual sounds, and it was a complete mess which only got worse over time. Learning to read and write was therefore tough, restricted to those with ample time and money. Several attempts were made to reform the Elvic runes, but none of them came to fruition. When Emperor Athdus III conquered Osdarth, Nesarian and Osdarthian scholars began to mingle, and the Nesarians were generally impressed with the Osdarthian writing system, which was distantly similar to Elvic runes but far more intuitive; it was comprised of a symbol for each syllable, with the markings that made up the symbol determining the sounds within the syllable, similar to the Korean Hangul script today. The Osdarthian script became widespread amongst Nesarians and eventually other Elvic people, although it was still quite clumsy to use as it was designed for the Osdarthian language, not anything Elvic. A team of scholars came up with an Elvic variant of the script, known as the Elvo-Osdarthian sript, in the early 9th century, which was adopted officially by the Avamorian government and unofficially amongst the Nesarians, but not by Elavita. When Empress Hana I won the Mongol War and began the Empire's slow but steady expansion outwards, contact was made with many other writing systems; Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Perso-Arabic, Chinese, Latin and more. When the printing press arrived in the Empire in the 1540s, the Elvic people found that the Elvo-Osdarthian script was simply unsuited for it, as the presses imported from the west were designed for alphabets based on singular letters. It was presses designed for the Latin alphabet in particular which found their way into the Empire, and Emperor Athdus V took a strong liking to the alphabet, eventually decreeing that it was the official alphabet for the Elvic languages in 1559. He went a step further in 1568 and made it the official alphabet for all ''the languages in the Empire. By this point, Elvic runes were well and truly gone and were only used by the most conservative of religious writers, but the Elvo-Osdarthian script continued to be in common use for a long time. The Elvo-Osdarthian script had fallen out of common use by the early 1700s, replaced by the Latin alphabet, but it continued to be used in small pockets across the Elvic world until the late 1800s. It is still used today by some conservative writers, but the Latin alphabet is completely dominant everywhere else. Phonology Pronunciation of course varies with accents and dialects, but listed here is the Standard Ascarian accent, the speech considered the "standard" form of Nesarian. The letters are listed in alphabetical order, although the vowel sounds are grouped together first, then consonants. It should be stressed that r is never an approximate r (ɹ), nor is it a trill ®, but ɾ, an alveolar tap. It should also be noted that many throughout the north of Nesaria pronounce a as /a/ rather than /æ/, particularly in Wallshire (Cafanivon) and Mountaingate (Redalu). This does not happen in the south. Q When the Latin alphabet was introduced, c and q produced distinct sounds; c was /k/ and q was /x/. However, over time, in the Standard Ascarian accent (and all Northern dialects), the pronunciation of q became "compressed" and shortened until it produced a /k/, identical to c. In the Eshérian dialect and the standard form of the Southern dialect, q is still pronounced /x/, however this is rapidly falling out of fashion. Q is still firmly pronounced /x/ in High Elvish and Avamorian, as well as Old Elvic. Variable Letters In Nesarian pronunciation, sounds are rigidly bound to the letter they represent, although four of them can change depending upon their location within the word, known as the "variable letters" - namely, a, i, o and x. The letter combination ae is sometimes seen as a pair of variable letters, however its pronunciation varies depending upon the origin of the word and not the location of the sound within the word. In all words derived from Nesarian and Eshérian, ae is pronounced /aɪ/, but it is pronounced /eɪ/ in Elvish loanwords. X The letter x has the simplest rules. If it is at the beginning of a word, it is pronounced /z/. If it is not, it is pronounced /ks/. The only standard word where x comes at the beginning of a word is Xaenis, an Elvish loanword. I The letter i also has fairly simple rules. It can theoretically be pronounced as a long /iː/ anywhere in the word, but it is both common and acceptable to shorten the sound to /ɪ/ when the letter is in an unstressed syllable, such as in Re'ga'ti'nos', where the bold letters are stressed syllables and normal letters are unstressed. If the letter i is followed by the letter r, which itself is either at the end of a word or followed by a consonant, this modifies the sound to become /ɪːɾ/. The /ɾ/ should be produced, but it is commonly not. O The letter o is usually pronounced as /ɒ/, although this can lengthen to /ɒː/ in stressed syllables. When the letter o is immediately followed by the letter r in a stressed syllable, the sound becomes /ɔːɾ/, although in common speech the /ɾ/ is typically left off if nothing follows it (i.e. if it comes at the end of the word). For example, both mones'or''' and m'or'a are pronounced /ɔːɾ/, but c'or'elu is not, as "co" forms an unstressed syllable and "re" is a stressed syllable. A The pronunciation of the letter a likely followed some rule at some point, but there are no longer truly any hard and fast conditions that are always 100% true, which makes describing the rules of the pronunciation of this letter very difficult. Generally, a is pronounced /æ/, but in some cases it is a long /ɑː/. The one rule which can be clearly identified is that the letter a will always lengthen from a short /æ/ to long /ɑː/ if it is immediately followed by the letter r, which itself is either at the end of the word or followed by a consonant, and it is part of a stressed syllable. This means that the a is long /ɑː/ in q'a'''ra, as it is a stressed syllable, but short /æ/ in qaq'a'ra, as it is an unstressed syllable. Spelling Reform To make spelling the language more intuitive, spelling reforms have been proposed multiple times. The reform was only voted on once by the Imperial Council in 1863, and it was decisively defeated, receiving only a quarter of the vote. The general sentiment of the Council, which still holds true today, was that spelling reform is not required, and any reforms would merely result in unnecessary confusion and costs. The Committee of Nesarian Spelling Reform's latest proposals, defined in 1995, are as follows: * Remove the letter q from the alphabet, have c take its place where /k/ is required and kh take its place where /x/ is required (as is done in Estemorian) ** For example: qaqara -> cacara, in Southern dialect khakhara / khacara * Remove the letter x from the alphabet, have cs take its place where /ks/ is required and z take its place where /z/ is required ** For example: exo -> ecso * Replace ae with ai where /aɪ/ is required, and with ei where /eɪ/ is required ** For example: Itaena -> Iteina, paeco -> paico * Where a is long /ɑː/, have it written as á ** For example: qane -> cáne * Where o is long /ɔː/, have it written as ó ** For example: miscor -> miscór S The letter S has a curious rule, where a word ending in an S will only have the S spoken or written if the word comes immediately before the end of a sentence, before a pause (e.g. a comma or semicolon) or immediately before a vowel, or if the word is the name of a person or place. So, for example, while the "correct" form of the common battle prayer of the Imperial Knights might be "Jacras, qane fevos cir lonavos qane zerate, tiro qane rosa", it is in fact said and written as "Jacras, qane fevo cir lonavo qane zerate, tiro qane rosa". "A", "The", "Is" and "To" Nesarian does have a world equivalent to "the", which is "in", although it is not used unless it is essential for distinguishing context. "Hail the Emperor" becomes "Ceo Regatu" and not "Ceo in Regatu", because the Emperor is obvious, however a Nesarian would say "the state" ("In Esanos") to distinguish from "a state" ("Esanos"), i.e. to refer to one particular thing rather than the whole group of things. In the same way, "a" is not used unless it is essential for distinguishing context. Since "a" and "one" are the same word in Nesarian, it could be said that Nesarian does not have the word "a" at all, only using it to distinguish when there is just one object rather than many. If it is not necessary for context, it is simply not said. Similarly, "is" as a word exists (being "en"), but is generally not used unless it is essential for either distinguishing context or strengthening implication. For example, you would say "Otu vutos camala" (literally "This land honey") rather than "Otu vutos en camala" (literally "This land is honey"), but you would say "Niya ''en cavacus!" ("He is dying!") when trying to convince someone who believes that "Niya ros cavacus" ("He is not dying"). "To" does not exist at all. If you want to say you are going to a place, you simply miss out the "to", however if you are talking about something in the future, e.g. "I am going to sleep", you use the future tense form of "sleep". Suffixes Here is a list of all the suffixes that can modify the meaning of a word in Nesarian. The second suffix will be the version of the suffix that you add if the word ends in a vowel or a soft consonant such as "r". An "ae" at the end of a word becomes "a" when adding a suffix unless the original word is just one syllable that ends in "ae". These are the suffixes: * "E" / "Te" makes a singular noun into a plural noun. "River" ("Sacalifae") becomes "Rivers" ("Sacalifate"). * "Eso" / "Teso" makes a noun into an adjective. "Death" ("Cavac") becomes "Dead" ("Cavaceso"). In most cases, but not all, if the word ends in a vowel that is not "o", this vowel can take the place of the "e" in the suffix (e.g. "Yena", meaning "Badness", becomes "Yenaso", meaning "Bad", rather than "Yenateso"). * "Os" / "Vos" makes a noun into a verb. "Colony" ("Cratae") becomes "Colonise" ("Cratavos"). When added to a word that ends in a consonant after a vowel, it is removed and replaced with "vos". * "Olis" / "Lis" makes a noun into an adverb. "Weakness" ("Pixas") becomes "Weakly" ("Pixalis"). When the word ends in "s", it is removed and replaced with "lis". * "Ca" makes an adjective into a comparative adjective. This is added onto the "eros" that turns a word into an adjective. "Sweet" ("Cameso") becomes "Sweeter" ("Camesoca"). * "Ci" makes an adjective into a superlative adjective. This is added onto the "eros" that turns a word into an adjective. "Sweet" ("Cameros") becomes "Sweetest" ("Camerosci"). * "I" is added to a present tense verb to make it into a past tense verb, however this often collapses the suffix from "-osi" to merely "-si". "Suffer" ("Canos") becomes "Suffered" ("Cansi"). * "A" is added to a present tense verb to make it into a future tense verb, however this often collapses the suffix from "-osa" to merely "-sa". "Suffer" ("Canos") becomes "Will Suffer" ("Cansa"). * "Ivus" / "Tivus" makes a present tense word into a present participle word. Note that if a verb is being turned into its present participle form, you drop the verb suffix ("Ovos" / "Vos"), so "Hiking" ("Dranoxivus") comes from the noun "Hiker" ("Dranox") and not the verb "Hike" ("Dranoxos"). ** This is often shortened to simply "us" in the more common words, for example "Dying" is "Cavacus" and not "Cavacivus". * "Ae" makes a place name into a demonym. "Germany" ("Davutos") becomes "German" ("Davutosae"), and "England" ("Anglia") becomes "English" ("Angliae"). * "Ir" / "Sir" turns a noun into its possessive form. If you wanted to say that something belongs to Rotis, in English you would say it is Rotis', and in Nesarian you would say it is "Rotisir". If the word ends in an "s" followed by one vowel, the vowel is dropped and replaced with "ir". * "Or" / "Cor" is a little more vague, added onto a general concept or action to turn the word into the noun representing the object doing the action (not always a verb). For example, the action is "Archery" ("Melas"), but the object doing the action is an "Archer" ("Melasor"). Some words do not follow these rules, for example the word "Holy", which is "Ticae". According to the suffix rules it should be "Ticeso" or something similar because it is an adjective, but this word does not follow the suffix rules. This is left over from a version of Nesarian which had more complex grammatical cases. Another example is "Use", which is the same in its noun and verb forms ("Vos"). Note that past participles do not exist in Nesarian. To turn a verb into a past participle, you simply use the past tense version of the verb. Third person present (e.g. "he runs" or "she eats") also do not exist, you simply use the standard form of the verb ("he run" and "she eat"). Dialects There are several distinct dialects of the Nesarian language: Standard (or Perfect), Southern, Eshérian and Cortathian. Standard or Perfect Nesarian is the dialect of Ascaria and of the north in general, and this is the dialect learned by non-native speakers. The speakers of every dialect can understand Standard Nesarian, but native speakers of Standard Nesarian do not always understand the other dialects without prior study, particularly when it comes to Eshérian and Cortathian. Southern The Southern dialect is by far the largest dialect besides Standard Nesarian, making up approximately 30-35% of native Nesarian speakers, although that number is rapidly declining. The Southern dialect used to be an entirely separate language, however as the north and south came closer together as they were united under one state, the northern way of speaking gradually melded into the Southern language until they were not different enough to be classed as separate languages. The Southern dialect retains some words taken from the southern native Nesarian languages. For example, in Standard Nesarian the word for evil is "Mossa", believed to be derived from Wallian/Cafanae "Moesze", but in the Southern dialect it is "Mirya", believed to be derived from Sytholic (native Zatholian) "Meere". However, few words have differences as dramatic as this, most of the words that are different merely have a different vowel or a different consonant, and the amount of words that are entirely different is quickly reducing. The Southern dialect also retains the old pronunciation of the Q ("ch"/"kh", IPA "x") and an S is usually pronounced as a Z if it is at the start of a word - which itself is likely why Sythol, the native name of the land, turned into Zathol. J is also a softer sound, making a ʒ (the s in plea's'''ure) rather than a dʒ (as in '''j'uice). Eshérian It is hotly debated as to whether or not Eshérian is merely a dialect of Nesarian or an entirely separate language, and it is also difficult to classify, as the degree of differences with Standard Nesarian varies across Eshérshire. Generally, those areas that are more genetically and culturally Elvish will speak a dialect that deviates from Standard Nesarian significantly more than those areas that are primarily Human. Eshérian retains the old pronunciation of the Q, and in some circumstances an "ae" is pronounced as "ei" and not "ai". This primarily happens when the "ae" follows an R, N or M, or when the word consists of one syllable ending in "ae" (such as "qae"), but can also happen in other circumstances, and whenever "ae" appears in the name of a place or person it is always pronounced as "ei". In many (but far from all) cases, Eshérian also retains the Old Elvic "I", which in Nesarian in many cases was replaced with a "Y" - for example Nesarians say Yacela (jækɛlæ) for the name of the king of the gods, but Eshérians say Iacela (ɪækɛlæ). There are also of course different words, and this is where the complexity comes in, because the amount of different words is highly variable across Eshérshire, and it depends on to what extent the speakers adopted the Elvicised forms of native words from the Humans, and to what extent they retained their original Elvic words. For example, the word for war in Standard Nesarian is "Mega", taken from Wallian/Cafanae "Megghen", but in Eshérian it is "Crona", derived from Old Elvic "Krœná". Cortathian Like with Eshérian, it is difficult to pin down a standard for the Cortathian dialect, although there is no question that Cortathian is a dialect and not a separate language. There are no different words, although the suffixes can mutate under certain conditions and pronunciation is different. The Cortathian dialect emerged as a result of the northern Nesarian language being imposed upon the Cortathians, who were the last in Nesaria to adopt the language (and so Cortathian is the youngest dialect), and there are still many speakers of native Cortathian today. Generally, but not always, Cortathians will remove the vowel preceding an S if the S is at the end of a word, particularly if the preceding vowel is an O, but where this results in two Ss next to each other, it is said as "sh". For example, "Misos", meaning "Rot", would become "Miss", but because there are two Ss side by side it actually becomes "Mish". Cortathians also usually reduce an O to a schwa, turning "Spio", meaning "Sport", into "Spiə" (although it is still spelt the same way). If the letter V is directly sandwiched inbetween two vowels or immediately before an S, it is usually pronounced as an F, but this varies from place to place - so "Cevos", meaning "Rise", may become "Cefs". The most major deviation is with the suffix "-eso"/"-teso" which turns a noun into an adjective. In the Cortathian dialect, this begomes "-egg"/"-gg", and it also has a tendency to turn an immediately preceding E into an "ih" and an O or U into an "uh". In southern and western Cortathshire, or the Lowlands, this is said as a hard G, however in the north-east, or the Highlands, this said somewhat like "gkh"/"gx". "Craceso", meaning "Buttery", becomes "Cracegg". This is derived from the adjective suffix in native Cortathian, which is "-ggen". Common Speech Of course, the common dialect differs from the standard, formal, so-called "perfect" speech. Common speech tends to shorten vowels at the end of a word, particularly with the letter "o", which is often reduced to a faint schwa sound or sometimes missed out entirely. A good example to illustrate this is with an excerpt from the Nicene Creed, which contains within it large strings of words that become pronounced very differently in the common speech (although the Creed is obviously always spoken formally). A eni crucsi tiro qane tivi Pontius Pilate, a cansi, a fomsi; A caso eva niya cevsi nava caveso, in Baca olevos, A ludrosi isava Yara, A cuno cito giso piqa vi Yaci. In standard, formal Nesarian this would be pronounced as it is written; however, in the common speech, which tends to reduce or eliminate vowels at the end of a word, it would be pronounced more like so (using ə to represent the schwa, putting the ə in brackets where some dialects may remove it entirely): A eni crucsi tirə qane tivi Pontius Pilate, a cansi, a fomsi; A cas eva nia cevsi nava cavso, in Baca olevos, A ludrəsi is(ə)va Yara, A cun(ə) cit(ə) gis(ə) piqa vi Yaci. In recent decades, there has been a movement to recognise the common speech as a legitimate, valid dialect of Nesarian that is in fact spoken by the vast majority of both native and foreign speakers, but the institutions stand firmly by the formal traditions.